SNP faces its biggest challenge in 20 years, warns Nicola Sturgeon’s former chief of staff
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Nicola Sturgeon’s former chief of staff has said the SNP faces its biggest challenge in 20 years in 2024 as it tries “to get its act together”.
Liz Lloyd said the party “still has some way to go” to convince people it has recovered from Ms Sturgeon’s resignation as leader last March. The following month police raided the home she shares with husband Peter Murrell, the party’s former chief executive.
With a general election almost certain to happen this year, Ms Lloyd said the SNP faced the problem of Labour being seen by voters as a credible UK government and an “opportunity for change”.
She also admitted there were “small rumblings” within the party about Humza Yousaf’s leadership but insisted he had the opportunity to “put the SNP back on the front foot” by setting out his agenda.
But Joanna Cherry, a senior SNP MP, dismissed Ms Lloyd’s comments. Quoting Clement Atlee, she tweeted: “I can assure you there is widespread resentment in the party at your activities and a period of silence on your part would be welcome.”
The divisions in the SNP were again exposed as a senior Scottish Tory MSP argued Scots have a “date with destiny” in the 2024 general election to weaken the Nationalists’ grip on power.
Stephen Kerr said there was an opportunity in the election to “create a political shockwave that will change the equilibrium of Scottish politics” by ousting SNP MPs across the country.
Writing in The Telegraph, he argued this would deny the Nationalists their “pulpit from which they can preach the nationalist liturgy of division, grievance, separatism and disunity”.
Although he said “the defeat of nationalism beckons”, he warned that to “finish it off forever” Unionists must also “get serious” about overhauling the Scottish Parliament.
The MSP said it was failing to hold Mr Yousaf’s government to account thanks to its “heavily controlled system” and reform was required so “it can get to grips with the real problems of Scotland”.
He cited the scandal over Michael Matheson’s £11,000 roaming charges bill, uncovered by The Telegraph, accusing Holyrood’s authorities of “blithely” waving through the extraordinary bill as a “legitimate expense.”
Mr Kerr argued the affair demonstrated “just how entitled and untouchable many establishment politicians in Scotland believe they are” and Holyrood “lacks the structures” to hold ministers like Mr Matheson to account.
The interventions by Ms Lloyd and Mr Kerr came after a new poll found the SNP is on course to lose up to 33 of the 48 seats it won at the 2019 general election in this year’s contest. Bookmakers have also said Mr Yousaf is odds-on to be replaced as first minister this year.
‘SNP needs to switch the narrative’
Ms Lloyd told the BBC’s World at One programme: “This is probably the hardest year the party has faced since maybe 2004/2005.
“It needs to switch the narrative in Scotland from one of Labour gaining to one of the SNP fighting back – and being seen to credibly fight back.
“It is very much struggling to get its own message across. It has an opportunity. There is time ahead of a general election to do that but it needs to do that really quickly.”
Mr Yousaf narrowly won the SNP leadership contest to succeed Ms Sturgeon and his first months as party leader and First Minister were dominated by the fallout from the police investigation into the party’s finances.
Ms Sturgeon, Mr Murrell and Colin Beattie, the SNP’s former treasurer, were also arrested and released without charge pending further investigations. The former first minister has denied any wrongdoing.
Yousaf has had nine months to ‘deliver’
Although the investigation has yet to conclude, Ms Lloyd argued that Mr Yousaf has had nine months “to clear the decks of policies that were left over from the Nicola Sturgeon time – issues which were causing him difficulty”.
She said: “He now has, ahead of the election, an opportunity to say ‘this is my agenda, this is what I’m about’ – and deliver on it so that people can make a judgment on it.”
Ms Lloyd added: “I think they need to look at making some changes – maybe a small reshuffle – things that put the SNP back on the front foot which it very much hasn’t been for the last nine months.”
Although support for the Tories has declined from 25 per cent to around 16 per cent since the 2019 election, party strategists are hopeful of making gains by targeting a series of marginal SNP seats.
Mr Kerr, who is the Tory candidate in Angus & Perthshire Glens, wrote: “So we have a date with destiny in 2024. We can break this mould but it will take the resolve of every voter to vote for a better future for Scotland.
“Of course, we won’t change the Scottish Government at a UK general election, but we can and must create a political shockwave that will change the equilibrium of Scottish politics and end the constitutional obsession which has played out at the expense of improving lives and life-chances.
Arguing that Holyrood urgently needs reform, Mr Kerr said the public would be “aghast” if they noticed the “hours of meaningless debate”, all of which he said was “highly scripted and controlled”.
Richard Thomson, an SNP MP, said: “After decades and decades of failing Westminster governments, ignoring Scotland’s interests and driving down living standards, people will have a chance to reject broken Brexit Britain at the next general election by voting SNP.”
A Scottish Parliament spokesman said: “Any member of the Scottish Parliament is able to raise any issues they have with how the Parliament operates by discussing the matter with the presiding officer, approaching the Parliament’s standards and procedures committee, or working to raise issues through their party’s representatives on the parliamentary bureau.”
Scotland has a date with destiny in 2024
by Stephen Kerr
We have an opportunity in 2024 to begin to end the last decade of wasted effort, energy and debate on an issue that has dogged Scottish politics for far too long; independence.
Only by removing the SNP from public office can we begin to effect the change so desperately needed in Scottish politics.
When an SNP MP is removed, so is the pulpit from which they can preach the Nationalist liturgy of division, grievance, separatism and disunity.
I have spent a lot of hours speaking to people on their doorsteps over the past six months, worried about failed services, about schools, the creaking NHS, anti-social behaviour, the lack of police in their communities and about the complete absence of boundaries or consequences when people break the law.
So we have a date with destiny in 2024. We can break this mould but it will take the resolve of every voter to vote for a better future for Scotland.
Of course, we won’t change the Scottish Government at a UK general election, but we can and must create a political shockwave that will change the equilibrium of Scottish politics and end the constitutional obsession which has played out at the expense of improving lives and life-chances.
The voters will do their part, but Scotland’s parliamentarians need to do theirs. We urgently need reform of the Scottish Parliament.
The lesson of 2023 must surely be that there can never again be a scandal as damaging to public trust in politicians as the Matheson iPad debacle.
The £11,000 data charge, blithely waved through as a legitimate expense, showed us just how entitled and untouchable many establishment politicians in Scotland believe they are.
The Scottish Parliament turns 25 in 2024. It needs to act with maturity and make itself fit for purpose. The people of Scotland need to ask, when it meets for about 10 hours each week, what are they debating? And how effectively are MSPs scrutinising the work of the Scottish executive?
If more people saw what is happening in our Parliament, they would be aghast. Hours of meaningless debates on student debating-style motions, all highly scripted and controlled and a group of MSPs totally out of touch with the real priorities of Scottish people.
The Parliament desperately needs free-thinking MSPs. People capable of forming their own opinions and articulating them.
There are already several members fighting against a heavily controlled system to speak out about issues they feel strongly about for their constituents. But more are needed.
And we need more MSPs to pay heed to principle over party. The dissenting opinion, the maverick point of view or the inciteful analysis is sacrificed on an altar of consensus.
The fact that many in positions of influence in Parliament seem to be so proud of this fact is wrong.
The consensus around education puts children and young people at a disadvantage by promoting inclusiveness at the expense of knowledge.
The consensus around health has packed waiting lists and led to a logjam in the ambulance service.
The consensus around justice has led to communities turning a blind eye to drug dealers and criminals to avoid having to call out criminality.
Consensus politics has robbed us of a successful Scotland. The Parliament lacks the structures to deal with this and the time and the skills for proper debate.
It attracts people more interested in the cheap sound bite for social media than public service failure. The amount of time given over to debating matters outside the remit of the Scottish Parliament is significant and utterly pointless for the governance of Scotland.
At the hearing of the economy and fair work committee in December where evidence was heard from Petroineos, which had announced the end of fuel refining at Grangemouth, some members of the committee read out questions that had been pre-prepared for them and then went back to checking their emails.
I was a member of the business select committee of the House of Commons during the Carillion scandal during which, over many hours, the executives were hauled over the coals by interested and prepared MPs.
The contrast is deeply worrying. I would urge the public to watch this and decide if their elected representatives are doing a good job.
Some believe Nationalists want the Parliament to fail. If solutions cannot be found in the Scottish Parliament, then surely independence is the answer.
The Lib Dems and Labour believe in the Scottish Parliament, with the Scottish Conservatives as later converts, many exhibiting the convert’s zeal.
Unionists must get serious about reform of the Scottish Parliament. As we go into the New Year, the defeat of nationalism beckons and must be the first priority of Unionists.
To finish it off forever we must reform the Parliament to ensure that it can get to grips with the real problems of Scotland.
Stephen Kerr is a Scottish Conservative MSP and the party’s UK general election candidate for Angus & Perthshire Glens.
